Traffic and weather go together. Traffic and weather represent two of the most practical categories of information and news that many individuals use almost every day in planning and living their daily lives. Thus, it makes sense that traffic and weather information are most often provided together, side by side. For example, drive time radio will often provide a traffic report, followed immediately by a weather report, or vice versa, to listening commuters several times an hour. Similarly, on-line services will offer or present traffic and weather reports in close proximity, e.g., on a website offered by the same provider. Thus, for example, on a general news or information website one will typically find the links for traffic and weather reports close together, or even right next to each other.
Besides their common importance in people's lives, traffic and weather also go together in another sense. Weather conditions, particularly severe weather conditions, often can effect traffic conditions. Normal traffic conditions and drive times can be affected significantly by severe weather conditions such as heavy rain, snow, ice, and the like.
Although traffic and weather do go together, currently traffic reports and weather reports are separately generated and combined typically only in the sense that they are presented together sequentially in time, e.g., one after the other as part of a radio report, or in cyber space, e.g., as adjacent links on a web page. Thus, it is left to the recipient of such separate traffic and weather reports to integrate the information received in their own mind to determine how the traffic and weather information being presented separately to them is likely to affect their life today. What is lacking and desired is a system and method for generating a truly integrated traffic and weather report which provides, via a single integrated presentation, a truly combined traffic and weather report that can be readily understood and applied by viewers thereof.
The weather report portion of conventional traffic and weather reports typically includes a report of current weather conditions as well as predicted or forecast weather conditions for the near future. Current weather condition information may be obtained from a variety of weather information sources, including weather radar systems (e.g., including the national NEXRAD weather radar system as well as live local weather radars), weather satellite imagery, automated and/or manned weather stations that record weather information such as wind speed, rainfall, humidity, temperature, etc., as well as human observation reports of current weather conditions. Information from weather information sources such as these, and others, is collected by a meteorologist or other weather reporter, e.g., with the help of a computer system, to generate a report of current weather conditions.
Some of the information on current weather conditions also may be fed, as initial conditions, into sophisticated computer implemented weather forecasting models. Current weather forecasting models are able to generate detailed predictions of various weather conditions (e.g., temperature, precipitation, wind speed, severe weather conditions, etc.) having a high degree of geographic and temporal resolution and with significant accuracy. (An example of such a weather forecasting model is the ADONIS Microcast weather forecasting model, available from Weather Central, Inc. of Madison, Wis.) The output of such a weather forecasting model also is provided to the meteorologist or weather reporter.
The current weather information and forecast weather information provided are combined by the meteorologist or weather reporter into a combined weather report. Such a weather report may take many forms, including a weather condition and forecast report that is read over the radio, a weather report including various computer generated graphics showing current and forecast weather conditions as presented in a televised weather report by a live on-screen presenter, or as a report of current and forecast weather conditions presented using text and graphics that are provided to viewers over the internet, e.g., on a web page. Such generalized weather reports are presented or otherwise provided to all who are interested in the general current and forecast weather conditions for a relatively large geographic area of interest, such as the area covered by a local television or radio station.
Generalized current and forecast weather condition reports of the type just described are valuable, but can be of limited value. Current and forecast weather conditions can vary significantly over the relatively broad geographic areas covered, for example, by a television or radio station. Thus, individuals viewing or listening to such general reports, or viewing such generalized weather forecasts for a geographic area as provided on the internet, may not obtain a good understanding of how current and forecast weather conditions are likely to affect them at a particular location within the broader geographic area covered by the report that is important to them, e.g., their home, school, place of work or business, etc.
To solve this limitation, systems and methods have been developed for generating and delivering to users truly personalized weather reports of forecast weather conditions and warnings of severe weather conditions for individual user specified locations of interest. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,498,987 and 6,823,263, entitled System and Method for Providing Personalized Weather Reports and the Like, describe the generation of such personalized weather forecast reports. In accordance with the systems and methods described, individuals are able to create a user profile specifying particular locations of interest to those individuals. Taking advantage of the high geographic and temporal resolution of the ADONIS Microcast model, for example, personalized weather forecast reports are generated specifically for each individual user defined location of interest. Such personalized weather reports are then delivered directly to the individual users, e.g., over the internet, to a personalized internet web page, or to a wireless device, e.g., a cellular phone, or other user communication device. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,654,689, entitled System and Method for Providing Personalized Storm Warnings, compares individual user specified locations of interest to the current position and predicted path of travel of severe weather. From this comparison a determination is made whether or not the severe weather is likely to affect the user location of interest. A personalized warning may thus be provided to the user, e.g., via e-mail or to another user communication device, indicating that severe weather is on the way, the type of severe weather, the distance of the severe weather from the user's specified location of interest, and/or the likely time of arrival of the severe weather condition at the user location of interest. The systems and methods described in these patents also allow the individual user great flexibility in determining the conditions under which such personalized weather reports or storm warnings are to be provided to the user, e.g., allowing the user to specify the particular type of severe weather conditions for which the user desires to receive such a warning.
The traffic report portion of current traffic and weather reports typically provides a report of current traffic conditions based on current traffic condition information. For example, for a radio broadcast traffic report current traffic condition information may typically be obtained from traffic observers. For example, observers in aircraft or in land vehicles may provide a visual report of current traffic conditions, including travel times along specific roadways between specific locations know to most commuters in an area. Such traffic observations also may be obtained using remote controlled video cameras placed along selected roadways that regularly experience significant traffic volume. Such observational information may be obtained directly by the entity providing the traffic report, and also from police reports, e.g., of accidents or other traffic tie-ups, and/or from citizen observer reports.
More advanced traffic reporting may employ automated traffic monitoring systems. Such systems currently are limited to relatively large urban areas that experience significant daily commuter traffic. Such automated traffic monitoring systems may include, for example, optical or vibration sensors that are placed along or in specific major roadways that experience significant commuter traffic. Such traffic sensor information may be fed, e.g., via a wired or wireless connection, from the sensors to a centralized computer system where this information, in combination with observational information, may be used to generate automatically, or semi-automatically, a report of current traffic conditions for the roadway being monitored.
An even more advanced method for monitoring traffic employs global positioning system (GPS) equipped cellular phones or similar communication devices. Such devices provide a very accurate indication of their current geographic position. By monitoring the position signals obtained from such devices located along a roadway the speed of travel of the devices, and, thus, of the vehicles in which they are located, along the roadway can be determined. (Such position information may be obtained from GPS equipped cellular telephones as long as they are turned on, whether or not a call is in progress using the cellular phone.) From the speed of traffic along a roadway determined in this manner current traffic conditions, including commute times, can be determined and incorporated into a report of current traffic conditions.
Using historical traffic data for particular travel routes in combination with current or predicted traffic affecting conditions a forecast of traffic conditions along a route may be obtained. For example, by analyzing historic traffic conditions a model of travel times along a section of roadway may be obtained for, for example, particular days, days of the week, seasons of the year, times of day, etc. By analyzing such historic traffic data the effect of various weather conditions on traffic conditions also may be determined and included in the traffic forecast model. Using such a model based on historic traffic information, along with known or predicted future conditions, e.g., predicted weather conditions from a weather forecast model, as discussed above, a forecast of traffic conditions, e.g., travel times, along a roadway may be determined. Such a traffic forecast may be included as part of the traffic report that is provided to users. Such traffic forecast generation and reporting is available, for example, from TrafficCast of Madison, Wis.
As with weather reports, traffic reports are most valuable if provided in a personalized manner to individual users. Current online systems, for example, may allow a user to designate a particular route of travel, e.g., a daily commute between home and work. Based on current and forecast traffic conditions a personalized traffic report may then be generated and provided. For example, such a personalized traffic report may show a map with the user specified route of travel highlighted and indicating travel times along the route, the location of accidents or other traffic delays, etc. Such a personalized traffic report may be generated automatically by a computer system based on the traffic information provided thereto by observers, and/or by automated traffic sensors and/or from traffic forecast models. Such personalized traffic reports may be provided to users via the internet, e.g., at a personalized web page generated for the user, or to a remote user communication device, such as a cellular telephone with graphic display capability, or the like.
Thus, personalized weather forecast reports and warnings, and personalized traffic reports are, to some degree, known. However, current systems do not provide a truly integrated traffic and weather report or, more particularly, personalized integrated traffic and weather reports and warnings or alerts. What is desired, therefore, is a system and method for generating a traffic and weather report and alerts of traffic and weather conditions of particular interest wherein the traffic and weather contents are fully integrated. Such an integrated traffic and weather report preferably provides both traffic and weather forecast information to users in a personalized, easily understandable, integrated, and interactive manner.